Football can still set a positive example

1of2Students (wearing blue) playing for Meadowland Charter School in Boerne take part in a recent flag football game. The school, which is for at-risk youth, uses the sport to try and teach life lessons.Photo: Courtesy photos / Ron Eisenberg

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BOERNE — After weeks of hearing about football players misbehaving, it's nice to see football solving problems for a change.

Up here at Meadowland Charter School, which caters to an attached residential treatment center for at-risk boys and girls, officials signed up for a flag football league two years ago to give the kids something to do.

They got more than they bargained for, in a good way, on every level.

On the field, the Mustangs went 7-2 and won the regional championship in their first season, beating Por Vida 56-14. Meadowland made the charter school final four, losing 28-14 in the semifinals to Peak Preparatory of Dallas. The team is 2-0 this year.

As it turns out, says admissions director and athletic coordinator James Chavis, flag football is a perfect way to teach life lessons to the 93 kids in grades 3-12 who go to school there.

Like most interscholastic sports, football teaches Meadowland players about teamwork, trust and how hard work pays off.

Unfortunately, those lessons usually come with a price. Chavis and school leaders didn't want their students to become sucked into the pressure-cooker world of high school football.

The residential kids are all wards of the state, removed by Child Protective Services, and placed with Roy Maas' Youth Alternatives, which operates several treatment facilities. These kids, even the happy ones, have endured a lot of misery.

Flag football, with no pads, no contact, no marching bands and no chance of recruitment, is perfect for Meadowland.

The games, played on Saturday mornings, are against other small, specialized facilities such as KIPP University, San Antonio School of Inquiry and Southwest Prep SE. Those are four-year schools fielding varsity teams.

Again, Meadowland is different. It's co-ed, it's a residential facility and it lets sixth-graders and above play. Girls play on the football team, too, making up nearly a third of the 21-member team. Special-needs kids are included as much as possible as well.

That spirit of inclusion was important for Chavis. These kids are, through no fault of their own, away from their families. Including them as young as possible creates self-worth and an overall sense of community.

The jocks aren't on a pedestal; they're one of “us.”

Texas Charter School Academic and Athletic League flag football is played 7-on-7, with everyone eligible to catch a pass, on a field that's 80 yards by 40 yards. Contact can only be incidental. Players can't leave their feet to grab flags or when they're in possession of the ball. Blocking is limited to, essentially, standing in someone's way.

And grabbing a flag is a lot tougher than it sounds. We are, by nature, meant to grapple each other. Amped-up people do it. Angry people do it. Playing babies do it.

Flag football's ban on it, however, is more than decorum. When it comes to Meadowland's kids, it's therapeutic.

They have to focus on following that no-contact rule and not react with brute force. That's a big lesson for kids here, since violence or rule-breaking likely played a part in their early lives.

Without the ability to knock a runner to the ground, defenders have to focus on the flag and take the extra steps to avoid contact while grabbing it.

The ban on leaping for a flag means the kids have to think before they act (i.e., make an educated guess about a runner's direction and get there first).

And if the runner gets by them, the defenders have to learn from their mistakes to prepare for the next time. Resilience, Chavis said, is an important lesson for Meadowland kids.

Outside kids may attend Meadowland, but most students are residents.

That residential group includes the team's two captains, Markeese and Carlos, and their star player, a 12-year-old girl named Britrevia who goes by “BB” (Chavis asked that I leave out their surnames since many are from families with ongoing legal situations).

“This is a really hard game to play,” said Markeese, 16, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver. “It's much harder on defense than on offense.”

“It's a lot easier to play QB with players like Markeese and BB,” said Carlos, the team's QB. “BB is really good, and it fools a lot of teams that don't cover her because she's a seventh-grade girl.”

“I like playing,” said Britrevia, who stands 5-3.

“It helps keep me out of trouble.”

Coach Callie Angel, who is also the school's math teacher, said the three exemplify the program's benefits.

For BB, football allows her to mesh with older kids in a non-confrontational way. As one of only two returning players from last year's team — the school's turnover rate is 73 percent, Chavis says — she has assumed a leadership role.

Carlos fought every day when he arrived earlier this year, Angel said, but since joining the team, he has been a model citizen.

And both of the older boys embrace the job of mentoring the younger kids.